Nebraska Medical Cannabis Bill fizzles in committee

The law faced a series of setbacks that clouded its prospects: its sponsor, Republican state senator Mike Groene, abruptly resigned Monday, and at a hearing held in the capital, Lincoln, on Wednesday, “no one spoke in favor of it.” according to local TV station WOWT.

“The only reason it was even heard is because State Senator Anna Wishart is from Lincoln, one of the most vocal proponents of medical marijuana [sic] in the legislature, picked up the bill — not because she likes it, but because she wanted to give people who had circled that date another chance to approach the Judiciary Committee,” the channel reported.

Now the bill is “dead on arrival,” according to WOWT.

The result is not a big surprise. Just a week ago, before his sudden resignation, Groene said the law was “just an empty law” that he wanted to replace with a more comprehensive proposal.

“I did it two hours before the deadline to drop a bill. It won’t be the end product,” Groene told the broadcaster at the time.

“Our bill will treat it like medicine. It will respect you. And we added inhalers, pills and inhalers. This is medicine. I don’t know of any other drug that you smoke,” he added.

The failed legislation comes amid a separate effort to get a medicinal cannabis proposal in the Nebraska vote this year.

In September, the group Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana announced that it “recently submitted draft measures to the Nebraska Secretary of State and expects to begin distributing petitions later this month.”

The group aims to “qualify two initiatives ahead of next November’s election by collecting approximately 250,000 signatures statewide before the July 7, 2022, deadline.” One initiative would “oblige lawmakers to enact new legislation that protects physicians who recommend medicinal cannabis and patients who possess or use medicinal cannabis from criminal punishment,” according to the Lincoln Star, while the other would urge lawmakers to do so , “Passing legislation that provides a legal framework for this protects private establishments that produce and supply medical cannabis.”

The group was led by Crista Eggers, the mother of a 6-year-old son named Colton, who suffers from severe, intractable epilepsy.

“We have received so much support from individuals across the state who are supporting the many patients, like our son Colton, who desperately need access to this drug. Regardless of your political background, we should all agree that criminalizing a drug that has the potential to alleviate suffering is both cruel and inhumane,” Eggers said in a press release.

“The current policy does not reflect our family values ​​here in Nebraska and we will change that. We need everyone who believes in compassion for suffering people like my son to be part of this movement and help us win 2022.”

WOWT reported that Eggers brought Colton to the Lincoln hearing on Wednesday.

The broadcaster said that Eggers and other supporters pushing for legalization of medical cannabis in the state have “blasted those who have put forward a medical cannabis bill when it does not include a way to grow it,” arguing that the ” Point should be a distraction from the ongoing petition campaign to put medical marijuana on the November election.”

“His last EEG showed he had 27 seizures in just 45 minutes. That means while I was in the room, Colton attacked at least 50 times,” Crista Eggers said, as quoted by the station. “A bill like this is a slap in the face – it dangles something in the faces of sufferers.”